If you behaved all year long and Santa has answered your wishes of receiving a nice iPad Air and an iPad mini, I am sure that you would want to learn more regarding its features and options. The iPad is a powerful yet smooth tablet, which has a lot of power, as long as you know how to use it.

Within this article, I want to show you a couple of tips and features that are meant to make your iPad experience much enjoyable and rewarding. Now, do not think that these tips are top secrets. If you used to own an iPad in the past, then some of them will not surprise you. They are just meant to help the new users to get started and become familiar with the basic functions of an iPad.

1. Passcode Lock Feature

As happens in the case of iPhone users, the Passcode Lock feature is very useful when you are afraid of sharing your personal information with others. However, on an iPad, this feature might become a little bit annoying since you do not take your iPad everywhere as you do with your iPhone. Therefore, if you decide to enable or disable this protection feature, you should head over the Settings menu, into General section, and tap on the Passcode Lock option. Here, you can turn it off or on, as well to set a different password.

2. Folders

Since the iPad offers a different browsing experience due to its large screen, I am sure that most of you hurry to download all sorts of apps, tweaks and other useful programs. In this respect, if you want to group similar applications, you have the option of creating folders. With multiple folders, you will flip through several pages more easily. In order to create a new folder, all you have to do is to tap and hold your finger on an icon until all onscreen icons start to jiggle. Now, you can move them one to another. For example, you take one game and put it over another one. In this way, a new folder will be created, and you will be able to place all your games into the respective folder. All these folders will receive an automatic name, but you can easily rename them afterwards.

3. ControlCenter

As it is for the iPhone, the ControlCenter is very useful since it offers access to multiple options and features. For example, if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen, you will launch the ControlCenter which will give you access to several of the iPad’s features such as playback controls, AirPlane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do not Disturb or Mute. In the same time, you can access the Clock and camera very quickly, as well as other volume controls, AirPlay, AirDrop, or Brightness.

4. Multitasking Experience

As expected, the iPad’s large screen allows for multitouch gestures. These multitasking gestures are used as simple shortcuts. For example, if you want, you can pinch the screen with all five fingers in order to launch a certain app, or to close a random one. A swipe to the left or right will launch multitasking. In the same time, if you want to turn multitasking gestures off or on, just go to Settings, General, and Multitasking Gestures. Here, you can also set them as you please.

5. Hard Reset

This feature can be used only in certain cases. Actually, in cases of different problems such as a locked up iPad or when the device it freezes. If you find yourself in this situation and you want to perform a hard reset, all you have to do is to hold down the Power button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time for a couple of seconds. At this point, you will see a window prompting telling you to swipe to power off. However, do not do as asked because the iPad will power off by itself. Press the Sleep/Wake button to power your device back on.

These are only some necessary features and options, which every iPad user should learn when using an Apple tablet. However, there are plenty of other interesting options and possibilities on an iPad Air or an iPad Mini, especially when it runs on Apple’s latest firmware.